California Biographies
Source:
History of Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Ventura Counties, California
by: C M Gidney - Santa Barbara. Benjamin Brooks - San Luis Obispo.
Edwin M Sheridan - Ventura
Volumes II - Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago, ILL., 1917
This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm
CHARLES FERNALD. Through his character and his distinguished services the late Judge Charles Fernald
added new honors to a family name that has been prominently and worthily linked with the annals of
American history since the early colonial era. He was one of the honored and influential pioneers of
Santa Barbara and few have done more to foster the development and progress of this favored
section of the State of California, where he long lived and labored to goodly ends and where his
achievement was such as to make his name worthy of enduring honor on the pages of California
history.
Judge Fernald was born at North Berwick, Maine, on the 27th of May, 1830, and his death occurred at
Santa Barbara, California, on the 7th of July, 1892. He was a scion of a long line of Puritan ancestors,
and the original American progenitor of the Fernald family was Dr. Reginald Fernald, who was born in
Bristol, England, and who, as a physician and surgeon of marked ability, accompanied Sir Ferdinand
Garges' expedition to America and settled in New Hampshire, in 1631. He was a member of the
colonial company of Captain John Mason and in 1640 there was conveyed to him a grant of fifty acres
of land, on the northeast shore of the Piscataqua River. The property here owned by Doctor Fernald
and his brother Thomas continued in the possession of the family for 150 years, the final conveyance
of the estate to others having been made by John Fernald, Jr., and it is specially worthy of record that
at this time John Fernald, Jr., gave up possession of Fernald's Island, which, on the 15th of June, 1806,
became the property of the United States, the property being now the site of the Portsmouth Navy
Yard maintained by the Government.
Hercules Fernald, grandfather of the subject of this memoir, was born at Kittery, Maine, on the 4th of
December, 1749, and during the War of the Revolution he was a gallant soldier in the Massachusetts
Line, with which he took part in the historic engagements at Dorchester Heights, Fort Constitution,
Bennington, Bemis Heights, Stillwater, Saratoga, and other important conflicts with the British forces.
The early education of Judge Charles Fernald was gained largely under the effective preceptorship of
Prof. Harrison Carroll Hobart, and the adventurous spirit of the New England youth was manifested in
action that was taken by him when he was not yet nineteen years of age. At this time he became a
member of a party of argonauts that set forth for the newly discovered gold fields in California. He
arrived in San Francisco on the 14th of June, 1849, and after passing a few months in the mining camps
he returned to San Francisco, where he engaged in editorial work for such prominent pioneer
newspapers as the Post and the Alta Californian. Prior to coming to the West he had given close
attention to the study of law, and in San Francisco he continued his technical studies with characteristic
zeal. Disastrous fires that visited San Francisco in 1851 and 1852 somewhat reduced his ardor for life in
the Far West, and he decided to return to New England. He made plans to visit friends in Southern
California prior to his departure for the East, and on the 30th of June, 1852, he joined his friends,
Edward Sherman Hoar and Augustus F. Hinchman, at Santa Barbara. Apropos of this stage in his career
the following interesting record has been written, and it is worthy of perpetuation in this connection:
“So complete has been the transformation in the appearance of Santa Barbara that one can scarcely
imagine the contrast afforded by present- day activity in comparison with the dreamy drowsiness
marking the Mexican settlement of more than sixty years ago. Just at the time of Mr. Fernald's arrival,
however, the peaceful lives of the citizens had been interrupted by the depredations of an organized
company of bandits who terrorized the entire community and who compelled the county officers to
resign their posts. The best men of the community were making a determined effort to evolve order
out of anarchy. At this opportune time Mr. Fernald was tendered the office of county judge, and in a
single day his entire plans were changed. He decided to remain in California, and March 14, 1853, he
received the appointment as county judge. On the 1 5th of the following September he was duly
elected to this office, and two years later he was re-elected. One of his first official acts was the
appointment of Russell Heath as district attorney. His splendid personal courage enabled him to cope
with the desperadoes who had no regard for life or property. His life was in constant danger in the
then unsettled condition of the country and he had many stirring experiences in the administration of
the law and the holding in check the many rough characters who menaced the public, peace. That he
succeeded in administering justice and in securing the respect of the community is proved by the fact
that he held office four successive terms by election. Under the first state constitution the duties of a
county judge were not limited to the trial of civil cases. As judge of the court of sessions he presided at
the trial of many criminal offenders, and he was also judge of the probate and county courts.
“During his incumbency of his position on the bench, Judge Fernald continued his close study of the
law and also devoted much attention to the study of the Spanish language. As a result he was
thoroughly equipped to handle the peculiar litigation arising principally from the construction of
Mexican grants, their authenticity, their limitations and boundaries; and consequently, after retiring
from the bench, he was retained as counsel by the principal owners of property in Santa Barbara
County, which at that time included the present county of Ventura. He was admitted to the state
supreme court September 2, 1854; to the United States circuit court in 1857; and to the United States
supreme court in 1874."
The superior legal attainments of Judge Fernald were supplemented by remarkable resourcefulness in
his management of the complicated matters affecting the titles to land and arising in the peculiar
disputes characteristic of this country after its conquest, and this eminent fortification resulted in the
retention of the services of Judge Fernald not only by the land-owners of his locality but also brought
to him a clientage beyond the borders of California. In this connection it may be noted that he was
retained as attorney for Thomas A. Scott, of Philadelphia, who was the owner of large landed holdings
in Southern California.
Judge Fernald was unsparing in his services in behalf of his home city and county, which shall ever owe
to him a debt of gratitude and honor. Especially valuable were his services in fixing the titles and
boundaries of the municipal lands of Santa Barbara, as successor to the ancient pueblo of the same
name, and he was primarily instrumental in obtaining from the United States Government a patent for
these lands, embracing four square leagues, this having been the first patent issued to any pueblo in
California.
In May, 1882, by an almost unanimous vote, the people of Santa Barbara voiced their high estimate of
Judge Fernald by electing him mayor of the city, and he served two years as the characteristically loyal
and progressive incumbent of this municipal office, in the meanwhile refusing to accept the salary
attaching thereto. As mayor he had the distinction of extending welcome and entertainment to the
Marquis of Lorne and Princess Louise, who honored Santa Barbara with a visit of three weeks,
incidental to their American tour. Judge Fernald later served as United States commissioner for the
Southern District of California, and in this position likewise he acquitted himself with characteristic
ability and distinction.
Judge Fernald was a man of fine intellectuality and was specially talented as a linguist, as he
familiarized himself with the French and Italian as well as the Spanish languages. He was a life member
of the American Forestry Association, and took the deepest interest in its work as pertaining to
California. He was the first to make experimentation in the cultivation of olive trees in Southern
California, save for the minor essays that had been made in connection with the old-time Spanish
missions, and his initial experiments were made in 1865-66, when he purchased the Belmont property
near Santa Barbara and planted on the tract a large number of olive trees, with the purpose of
establishing the fact that here could be produced olives for preserving and for the making of oil of the
best grade. In all of the relations of life Judge Fernald effectually demonstrated the truth of the
statement to the effect that a man does not represent a fraction but a whole number; he is complete
in himself. His influence was benignant at all times and he accounted well for himself and to the world
as a resolute, noble and productive element in the social fabric.
On the 7th of August, 1862, at North Berwick, Maine, was solemnized the marriage of Judge Fernald to
Miss Hannah Hobbs, daughter of Wilson and Sarah Eliot (Goodwin) Hobbs and a descendant of Judge
John Hill, Samuel Goodwin, Robert Eliot and the Pepperell family.
Mrs. Fernald still survives her honored husband and is one of the revered pioneer women of
California. She is a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution and also of the Colonial
Dames, several of her ancestors having participated in the colonial wars and the War of the
Revolution. Her maternal uncle, Hon. Ichabod Goodwin, served as Governor of New Hampshire, and
another uncle, Dr. Daniel Goodwin, was president of the University of Pennsylvania. Judge Fernald is
survived by two sons and two daughters, and concerning one of the sons, Reginald G., individual
mention is made on other pages of this work.
Judge Fernald was a life member of the Pioneer Society of California, was affiliated with the Society of
the Sons of the American Revolution, was a member of the American Academy of Political and Social
Science, in Philadelphia, and was an honored and influential member of the California State Bar
Association, of which he served at one time as vice president. He was an appreciative student of the
history and teachings of the time-honored Masonic fraternity, with which he was long and
prominently affiliated, and incidental to this and other associations maintained by him the following
pertinent statements have been written:
As the bearing and deeds of Judge Fernald in life had been worthy a knight of old, it was fitting that his
associates, the Knights Templar, should perform the cross of steel over his grave. His comrades in the
California Society of the Sons of the American Revolution issued a pamphlet calling attention to his
worthy life and dwelling upon his merits. The Superior Court of Santa Barbara County passed a
resolution embodying a high tribute to the memory of the departed jurist, as did also the San
Francisco Bulletin in publishing the account of his death."